Man disappears in Austin after calling people for a ride
AUSTIN, Texas - (UPDATE: AUGUST 9, 3:15 p.m.): Larry Nelson said his partner Alexis Del Toro was found safe early Friday, August 9.
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(ORIGINAL STORY: AUGUST 8): A man who was working in Austin vanished three weeks ago after calling people for a ride. Alexis Del Toro, 25, was last heard from on July 19.
Del Toro is from Houston and had been working a construction job in Austin for the past couple of months, visiting Houston about every two weeks.
His partner, Larry Nelson in Houston, says he dropped him off in Austin on July 17, so Del Toro could go back to work on July 18.
Nelson says Del Toro was at Ojos Locos, his last known location, with coworkers after work.
Del Toro called Nelson at Ojos Locos in the middle of the night, saying he needed to go back to Houston, but Nelson was out-of-state.
Del Toro started reaching out to other friends for a ride, but no one could pick him up at the moment.
"After he reached out to everyone, he kind of disappeared off the map. His phone was off. His location and everything has just been completely non movement since that day," Nelson said.
Alexis Del Toro
Nelson says he and Del Toro's family started making flyers with contact information, but then an ominous message came in.
"It started making a little traction, got a lot of shares and the next day, one of the sisters got a text message, kind of threatening in Spanish with a Mexican number on WhatsApp," he said. "It's like, 'don't go making a bunch of noise if you want your loved one found safe.'"
Nelson says they have no idea who it is.
"We were trying to see if we would be able to see if there were any connections to that number or if we were to Google or Facebook or even check the Cash App to see if a name would come up with their phone number and nothing," he said.
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They are hoping it's not a legitimate threat and weren't aware of Del Toro being worried about anyone.
"We didn't have any concerns like that at all. Just the urgency that he was trying to get out of Austin kind of gave us those worries. Prior to that day, we never had any thoughts of anything going wrong or any enemies or anything like that," Nelson said.
Austin police confirm they've gotten a request to locate Del Toro. They don't believe he's in any immediate danger.
"It's been stressful," Nelson said of the past few weeks.
They've been checking every place they can think of, hoping he's found safe.
"He has a lot of family and friends who are very worried and concerned and hoping that we find any information that leads us to him," Nelson said.